Justice for Laquan McDonald!

Dash Cam Video of Chicago Police Murder to Be Released November 25

Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cop of Laquan McDonald to Jail, the Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell!

 

November 20, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a reader in Chicago:

Thursday, November 19—In an overflow courtroom in downtown Chicago, Judge Franklin Valderrama ordered the release of the police dashboard cam video of the killing of Laquan McDonald by Wednesday, November 25. In an 18-page ruling, the judge said that lawyers for the city had failed to prove that making the recording public would jeopardize any ongoing investigation. Judge Franklin Valderrama also rejected the city’s attempts to delay his order pending an emergency appeal.

A year ago, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times and killed by Chicago police for “refusing to put down a 4-inch knife.” Sixteen times!! And this murder was captured on the dash cam video from a police car. But the City has suppressed the video. The lawyer for the family said the video has not been aired because of the “fear of violent protests.”

The family’s lawyer has described what is seen on the video. Laquan is walking away from police with a small knife in his right hand. “He is not running. He is not lunging. He is walking. Two Chicago police officers jump out of a Tahoe with their guns drawn. Laquan is still walking west toward the sidewalk with a full lane of traffic separating him from one of the officers. One cop opened fire from 12 to 15 feet away. The video shows the 16 rounds hitting Laquan and the bullets making the body jump again and again.”

“It shocks the conscience,” the lawyer said. “The video was disturbing. It was described accurately by one of the witnesses as an execution. He was on the ground, and the police officer kept shooting.”

An eyewitness to the shooting—who has already testified before a federal grand jury—said, “I was there, I saw it. He (McDonald) wasn’t attacking anybody. He was looking for a way out. He was just trying to turn away. The kid turned away, was dropped at the first shot or two, and the police kept shooting and shooting. You could see his body moving. It freaked me out. It freaked my son out.”

The six cops on the scene, who participated in this execution, and the higher-ups have been lying and covering up and demonizing Laquan from the very first press release when they claimed Laquan lunged at a cop and the cops feared for their lives.

Last April the Chicago City Council voted to approve a $5 million payment to Laquan’s family with the stipulation that the family cannot release the video.

According to the Chicago Tribune, “Valderrama ruled in favor of petitioner and independent journalist Brandon Smith, saying that the police violated state Freedom of Information laws in withholding the dash-cam video. City lawyers said they’d keep fighting. Mayor Rahm Emanuel signaled as much in his abrupt about-face Thursday over the dash-cam video, the one an attorney for the city has acknowledged shows Officer Jason Van Dyke emptying his gun into the 17-year-old. But then, just a couple of hours later, Emanuel reversed course and said he’d release the whole thing to the public.” For a whole year Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Police Department have fought to keep this video murder from the light of day. Now Emanuel is hoping the whole thing can be swept under the holiday rug and that the city can start “healing”—in other words, avoid enraged protests.

Fuck Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago cops and the whole system that brings down brutality, terror and murder against the masses of Black and Latino people across this country! The cop needs to indicted, convicted and sent to jail for murder.

The video needs to go viral when it’s released. Millions of people across the country will see this horrendous execution of a Black teenager, shot down in cold blood by the police in a hail of bullets. And millions should be outraged and act with mass resistance to STOP POLICE MURDER.

Rise Up-Stop Police Murder activists and revolutionaries will be out in downtown Chicago for actively boycotting Black Friday, November 27, 12 noon at State and Jackson, and we will be demanding that the cop and all others who have been part of the cover-up of the execution murder of Laquan McDonald be indicted for murder and all the cops who participated in this yearlong cover-up be immediately charged.

 

 

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